All this week, Lifehacker's editors will be sharing the hardware, software, and tips and tricks they use to do their jobs here. I'm kicking things off with a heavy dose of Chrome/Android utilities, plus some writer's tools and productivity basics.

Click to viewLifehacker readers range from the complete newbie to the most seasoned techie, but…
Read more Read more

Hardware

Desktops & Laptops:

I switch between systems constantly. Not because I'm a professional, or travel, but I like different computers for different things. And I'm lucky enough to have a few to play with and keep fluent in.

ThinkPad T61p: Still kicking, more than three years after I bought it. Its motherboard died in the fall, and Lenovo replaced it free on a recall. I also upgraded the memory to 4 GB to facilitate an upgrade to Windows 7 64-bit (and 64-bit Ubuntu as my dual-boot option).

Google Cr-48: Chrome OS is far from finished, let alone polished. But having experimented in using it exclusively for six days, I like it for what it is: just a browser. And the device itself has a great battery life, and I really dislike doing the plug-hunt in public, and I'm keyboard-focused enough that the funky trackpad isn't such a deal-breaker.

MacBook Pro (15"): My wife's main laptop, which I borrow from time to time, especially when a there's a video project or a big screen needed.

Accessories

LogiTech MX 1100 Cordless Laser Mouse: It's a really great, ergonomic mouse. I don't use any of the extra buttons, but the hand feel, scroll wheel, and instant dpi sensitivity controls are hard to beat. It lasts the better part of six months on a pair of rechargeable batteries, too.

The Stuff in My Backpack: Mostly the same as the stuff in my old laptop bag, except I've traded up (should-pain-wise) to a North Face Surge Backpack. That holds whatever laptop I'm carrying for the day, plus my accessories, digital recorder, sometimes my video camera, an extra Nexus One battery, and a spare USB drive or two.

Phones, Tablets, and Other Mobile Devices

Google Nexus One: Originally purchased because it was first to receive Android updates. But now, more than a month after Gingerbread (2.3) hit the Nexus S, I'm running an unofficial open-source build. As for the phone itself, it's a good mix of decent features: camera, power, hardware design, and (especially) standard interface.

Sony ICD-PX820 Digital Voice Recorder: Purchased for a freelance reporting gig, but I was due to have one. Hoping to get use out of it for future video projects, as the sound quality is notably better.

Desktop

Click for larger view:

Wallpaper: Io sono Fabrrario ("I am February"), from the Italian publisher of Shane Jones' Light Boxes. I knew Jones in college, and his book resonates strongly for those living through upstate New York winters.

FlashBlock: Always enabled on Chrome Cr-48 and MacBook Pro, sometimes used on the Windows machine, mostly to save battery life and avoid crashes or slowdown.

Webapps

Pictured above, and mostly obvious. A few worth noting:

Simplenote and QuietWrite: I'm phasing out Simplenote, but it's where I store my feature ideas for Lifehacker. QuietWrite is my favorite writing environment: minimalist, auto-saving, but with a great HTML preview mode.

mSpot: I keep only a few albums of music on my main computer at any one time—when the collection gets big, I back it up to a USB drive. So mSpot is perfect for me—2 GB of space to upload my songs du jour, then stream them to any system, or my Android.

Desktop Apps

Windows

Dropbox: It's where I keep the files I always want on-hand, and it's also how I install side-loading apps on Android, keep my book's images in sync, and work from the Lifehacker pool.

mSpot: As stated above, I'm a big fan of its upload-and-stream service, especially the 2 GB for free part.

Texter: Handy for the little HTML tricks and pre-formatted text I'm often writing.

GIMP: I'm not too proficient with Photoshop, nor do I want to pay for or pirate it. So I get by in GIMP when I need to smudge out phone numbers or do some levels tweaking or tricky cropping.

Mac OS X

ShiftIt: Because as a relative Mac newcomer, I cannot get used to how "maximize" works in Macs, and its inconsistency, so I use this utility to arrange my windows how I want them, and make browser actually fill the screen.

Mobile Apps

SoundHound: The free and much better/faster replacement for Shazam—it identifies songs by audio sampling, humming, or tapping.

PicMe & ShootMe: I'm pretty good at setting up the Android SDK and using it to snag Android screenshots, but, boy, what a pain in the rear. Because I've rooted my Nexus One, I can use these apps to capture screens from any web browser (PicMe) or directly onto the SD card (ShootMe).

Tips & Tricks Closest To My Heart

Long before I was writing for Lifehacker, I was reading it every day (okay, every 2-3 hours) and using its tips to impress friends and co-workers. These are the tips that have stuck with me, or that I wrote myself and still find amazing: